Shown here is an image of the Blair Mill, included in the W. F. Blair Collection at the Sam Houston Regional Library (Thanks to Blair Leatherwood of Sacramento, Cal. for directing us to it).

Shown here is an image of the Blair Mill, included in the W. F. Blair Collection at the Sam Houston Regional Library (Thanks to Blair Leatherwood of Sacramento, Cal. for directing us to it).

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This is a hand-drawn map showing the location of the Blair Mill. It was drawn by Lena Blair, daughter of W. F. Blair. It is in the W. F. Blair Collection at the Sam Houston Regional Library and this photo of it was kindly sent to us by Blair Leatherwood. less

This is a hand-drawn map showing the location of the Blair Mill. It was drawn by Lena Blair, daughter of W. F. Blair. It is in the W. F. Blair Collection at the Sam Houston Regional Library and this photo of it ... more

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A LOOK BACK: Before it went up in smoke, Liberty County mill town had a tobacco plantation

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Following up on a couple of articles published a few months ago about old sawmill towns and other communities that once existed in Liberty County but are now long gone, except for some of their place names that have lingered and held on, we here take a look at what was once a sawmill town turned tobacco plantation.

Tobacco was once grown near the Trinity River at several places in Liberty County and most extensively at a place called Blairwood. This site was noted in the 1904 edition of the Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide. It says in an article on Liberty County written by C. F. Stevens, “some fine wrapper tobacco was grown under canvas at Blairwood, three miles above Liberty, on the Trinity. Government experts have pronounced the black silt lands in that vicinity as well adapted for the production of fine wrapper varieties of tobacco. Cigars have been manufactured at Blairwood for about four years.”

Blairwood was named after brothers John and W. F. Blair. They came originally from Ohio and one or both may have lived in Georgia for some time before coming to Liberty County, Texas, in the 1880s. They established several sawmills in the area and one large sawmill at Blairwood.

According to a syndicated article by W. B. Ethridge that appeared in a 1939 edition of The Cameron Herald, it was John Blair who established the tobacco plantation.

“He shipped most of the tobacco to Liberty, where a factory was erected for cigar manufacturing, ‘Blairwood Pride’ proved popular with cigar smokers all up and down the Gulf Coast,” Ethridge wrote under the subheading “Liberty County Has Tobacco Boom.” But, he went on to explain that Blair’s plantation house burned down and Blair died a couple of years later. “With his death the plantation no longer thrived, as no one else seemed to know enough about growing tobacco to make a success of it. Rank weeds and underbrush now hide what is left of the old Blair tobacco sheds in Liberty.”

According to Ethridge, Blairwood was “about ten miles north of Liberty,” but Ethridge also said John Blair came to Texas and started his tobacco farm in 1905 — two years after the Liberty Vindicator published Blair’s obituary and one year after the Texas Almanac said tobacco had been grown at Blairwood for the four years previous.

Besides, the C. F. Stevens who wrote that 1904 Texas Almanac article about Liberty County was a former Liberty County Judge and had lived here since 1861, so three miles above Liberty is probably a closer guess than 10 miles.

A 1900 Vindicator report said “Blair Bros.” had sold 8,000 pounds of tobacco at 50 cents a pound, and a few weeks later, John Blair’s son, Pearl Blair, sold 1,500 pounds at prices ranging from $1 to $1.75 a pound. “This is considered the best price ever realized for Texas tobacco. And will prove a winning card for Liberty county,” said the Vindicator.

Cultivation of tobacco at Blairwood had begun by 1898 at the latest, as evidenced by the display of Blair tobacco at the Houston Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Festival that year and reported in the Houston Post. The 1900 U.S. Census places John Blair in Liberty County, Precinct No. 4. That census records his occupation as farmer and Pearl Blair’s as “Cigar Maker.” Pearl Blair continued to farm tobacco after his father’s death in 1903, Pearl himself died the following year.